The Foodservice Impacts of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

Let’s look at some markets and start again with Poultry and the continuation of the Avian Flu outbreak.   Poultry: Avian Flu now has been detected in 36 states same as last week. After last week only reporting 600 birds this week we had a large egg laying operation in Colorado depopulate 1.9 million birds pushing the overall total to just shy of 40 million birds.  My hopes for this outbreak to be over look a bit premature right now.  Looking at boneless skinless breasts I’m finally seeing chicken breasts have peaked and slowly moving just a bit lower.  Tenders are still well sold and holding their value but we seem to be heading lower on breast meat.. finally. Chicken production is up slightly over the last week, demand is still strong from the  QSR segment but looks like.  Wings are holding steady and continue to be the value in the chicken market.  Beef:  The holiday shortened production week had 603 K harvested down from the prior week 644K which is a pretty strong production number for a holiday week.  There is product available and the market seems pretty steady. Rounds and chucks are steady, loins and tenderloins have the most current demand and are steady to slightly up.  Ribeyes are not demanding the summer attention we’ve seen in previous years.  Even though we are well below pricing same time last year beef is not holding retail demand.  I don’t see much to change a well supplied market with moderate demand, I’ll call this market just hanging out.  Pork: Bellies crashed yesterday all the way down to $138 almost $35 dollars down from last week’s $173. This is not something typical this time of year.  Bellies can bounce around and be unpredictable so let’s take advantage of this current low market, I don’t think this will last.  Loins and butts continue pretty steady for a third week, still fairly elevated but for the time of year we seem to be doing Ok.  Ribs on the other hand after chilling for a couple weeks are moving higher again.  All these pork prices should have a summer peak in late July or early August.    Grains: Corn closed at $7.97 up from last week’s $7.52.  Continued war in Ukraine is holding up product for much of the world. New crop planting is nearly done with 94% of the crop in the ground.  Export demand continues strong so no relief on corn prices any time soon.  Soy beans hit an all time high this week which has not translated to soy oil.. yet.  Still holding steady for a second week though Canola is getting tight, and outpricing soy now.  Some suppliers are allocating canola oil hoping to stretch to new crop.  New soy crop is 78% planted up from 66% last week so a few more weeks planting hand hoping the weather cooperates.  Wheat continues to struggle, spring wheat planting is at 82% which is about 15% behind expectations.  Winter wheat harvest is proceeding  crop quality is not good with only 30% harvested so far rated good to excellent which is about 20% below expectations.  Flour is in tight supply and expensive.  That is not changing any time soon.  Dairy: Through Thursday, Barrel is down 1, block is up 2 and butter is up 10. Butter has hit a high not seen since September of 2015.  Strong export demand and competition from ice cream makers has this market moving up.  I’m hearing we aren’t done yet but not sure how much higher we can go.Savalfoods.com | Find us on Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn